Social network service for semiconductor manufacturing equipment and users

Abstract

Methods and systems for sharing information related to operational metrics of a plurality of equipment used in manufacturing of semiconductor wafer includes interfacing a server with the equipment to allow the server to receive a plurality of parameters including operational metrics associated with operation of each of the plurality of equipment. The plurality of parameters are processed to identify event-related data, message-related data and to generate human-readable interpretation for the identified event-related data and the message related data. Users are identified for receiving the operational metrics of each of the plurality of equipment. The event-related data, message-related data and the corresponding human-readable interpretation for the operational metrics associated with each of the equipment are forwarded to a social network service for performing a posting operation to social data streams associated with the identified users. The operational metrics received over time from each of the equipment are managed so as to provide timely updates to the respective users on the status of each equipment. The timely updates are provided as additional postings to the respective social data streams of the users.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A system, comprising:
 a server that is configured to be interconnected with a plurality of equipment used for manufacturing semiconductor wafers, the server includes, 
 an interface to communicatively connect each of the plurality of equipment with the server, the interface configured to allow receiving, at the server, a plurality of parameters that are associated with operation of each of the plurality of equipment, wherein the plurality of parameters include operational metrics generated at the equipment during processing of the semiconductor wafers; 
 an interpreter module executing on the server configured to receive, process the plurality of parameters, the interpreter module includes,
 a semantic identifier logic to examine at least a portion of the plurality of parameters of a specific equipment to identify event-related data, message-related data contained within and to identify a human-readable interpretation for the event-related data, message-related data identified in the portion; 
 a message assembly logic to assemble the human-readable interpretation, message-related data, event-related data for the specific equipment into post data; and 
 
 a social network service coupled to the interpreter module, the coupling allows the interpreter module to forward the post data to the social network service, the social network service is configured to perform a posting operation of the human-readable interpretation to social data streams associated with one or more users that are authorized to receive information related to the operational metrics of the specific equipment. 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the interface is a web server interface, a proprietary interface, a non-proprietary interface or combinations thereof. 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the interpreter module further includes an event processor that is configured to,
 obtain event-related data from the semantic identifier logic; 
 examine the event-related data to identify a trigger event contained within; and 
 associate tags related to the trigger event, wherein the tags are obtained from an events library that maintains information related to a plurality of pre-defined trigger events associated with the plurality of equipment. 
 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the semantic identifier logic is configured to,
 examine a portion of string provided in the plurality of parameters associated with a specific equipment to identify a pattern that relates to a keyword, a phrase, a trigger event, or a code contained therein; and 
 provide the portion of string with an identifier of the keyword, the phrase, the trigger event or the code contained therein to the message assembly logic, 
 wherein the message assembly logic is configured to interact with a message library to identify the human-readable interpretation for the identifier provided by the semantic identifier logic, wherein the message library stores a mapping of the identifier to the corresponding human-readable interpretation for various strings of the plurality of parameters that identify patterns related to keywords, phrases, trigger events, and codes that are encountered during processing of the semiconductor wafers. 
 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the social network service includes,
 a post data manager to store the post data generated by the message assembly logic into a data store; and 
 a stream serving module to retrieve the post data from the data store related to each equipment for a user authorized to receive the post data, the post data retrieved from the data store is formatted for rendering in accordance to preferences of the user. 
 
     
     
       6. A method operated on a server that is configured to be interconnected with a plurality of equipment used for manufacturing semiconductor wafers, the method comprising:
 interfacing each of the plurality of equipment with the server, the interfacing configured to allow receiving of a plurality of parameters related to operation of each of the plurality of equipment at the server, wherein the plurality of parameters include operational metrics generated at each of the plurality of equipment during processing of the semiconductor wafers; 
 during operation, receiving the plurality of parameters from the plurality of equipment over a period of time; 
 processing the operational metrics included in the plurality of parameters for each of the plurality of equipment to identify event-related data or message-related data and to generate human-readable interpretation for the event-related data or message-related data provided in the operational metrics; 
 determining one or more users that are authorized to receive information related to the operational metrics associated with each of the plurality of equipment; 
 forwarding the event-related data, message-related data and corresponding human-readable interpretation for the operational metrics generated at each of the plurality of equipment to a social network service for performing a posting operation to social data streams of the respective one or more users; and 
 managing the operational metrics received over time from each of the plurality of equipment so as to provide timely updates to the respective one or more users, the timely updates being provided as additional postings to the social data streams of the one or more users. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 6 , wherein the interfacing is a proprietary interface, a non-proprietary interface, a web server interface or combinations thereof. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 6 , wherein processing the operational metrics further includes associating one or more tags, the tags used to identify any one of an equipment, a user, a notification type, a severity level, a process status, or combinations thereof. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , further includes storing the human-readable interpretation for the operational metrics received from the plurality of equipment and the associated one or more tags in a data store, the stored human-readable interpretation and the associated tags retrieved and assembled for presenting in the social data stream of a user, in response to a request from the user. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 6 , wherein processing the operational metrics further includes,
 analyzing the event-related data contained within the operational metrics associated with a specific equipment received over the period of time; and 
 generating a notification to the one or more users based on the analysis of the event-related data, the notification including at least a notification type and a severity level of an event identified in the event-related data. 
 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 10 , wherein the notification type is defined based on the severity level of the event identified in the event-related data, the notification type is one of a posting, a phone call, an email, a message alert or any combinations thereof. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 6 , further includes,
 determining interest level of the one or more users for each of the plurality of equipment, the interest level used to promote the corresponding postings in the social data streams of the one or more users, wherein the interest level of each user is defined by attributes of the user, number and type of interactions initiated by the user over time for the postings related to specific one or more of the plurality of equipment. 
 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 6 , further includes,
 determining user preferences of the one or more users for each of the plurality of equipment; and 
 posting human-readable interpretation for the operational metrics of corresponding equipment to the social data streams of the one or more user in accordance to the respective user preferences. 
 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 6 , wherein the social data streams provided by the social network service includes options to allow the one or more users to interact with one another to share information related the operational metrics of specific one of the plurality of equipment presented in the social data streams. 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 14 , wherein providing options further includes,
 providing a chat interface within the social data streams to enable sharing of information related to the operational metrics of the specific equipment with other users. 
 
     
     
       16. A method operated on a server that is configured to be interconnected with a plurality of equipment used for manufacturing semiconductor wafers, the method comprising:
 interfacing each of the plurality of equipment with the server, the interfacing configured to allow receiving of a plurality of parameters related to operation of each of the plurality of equipment at the server, wherein the plurality of parameters include operational metrics generated at each of the plurality of equipment during processing of the semiconductor wafers; 
 during operation, receiving the plurality of parameters from a first equipment over a period of time; 
 processing the operational metrics included in the plurality of parameters to identify event-related data or message-related data contained within and to generate human-readable interpretation for the event-related data or message-related data provided in the operational metrics of the first equipment; 
 determining one or more users that are authorized to receive information related to the operational metrics associated with the first equipment; 
 performing a posting operation to social data streams of the one or more users, wherein the posting operation causes postings of the event-related data, the message-related data and the corresponding human-readable interpretation of the first equipment to the social data streams of the one or more users; and 
 using information provided in the postings to identify and adjust one or more process inputs of a second equipment, wherein the second equipment is used to perform a subsequent process operation on the semiconductor wafers. 
 
     
     
       17. A method operated on a server that is configured to be interconnected with a plurality of equipment used in a manufacturing process, the method comprising:
 interfacing each of the plurality of equipment with the server, the interfacing configured to allow receiving of a plurality of parameters related to operation of each of the plurality of equipment at the server, wherein the plurality of parameters include operational metrics generated at each of the plurality of equipment during the manufacturing process; 
 during operation, receiving the plurality of parameters from the plurality of equipment over a period of time; 
 processing the operational metrics included in the plurality of parameters for each of the plurality of equipment to identify event-related data or message-related data and to generate human-readable interpretation for the event-related data or message-related data provided in the operational metrics; 
 determining one or more users that are authorized to receive information related to the operational metrics associated with each of the plurality of equipment; 
 forwarding the event-related data, message-related data and corresponding human-readable interpretation for the operational metrics generated at each of the plurality of equipment to a social network service for performing a posting operation to social data streams of the respective one or more users; and 
 managing the operational metrics received over time from each of the plurality of equipment so as to provide timely updates to the respective one or more users, the timely updates being provided as additional postings to the social data streams of the one or more users.